Wednesday, 14 December 2016

UK: We don't want deaf kids here...

A six-year-old deaf boy who fled Iraq with his family to escape the Islamic State (IS) group is being threatened with deportation. Lawand Hamadamin came to the UK after spending a year in a refugee camp in France.

Staff at the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby where Lawand is a pupil were "heartbroken", the head teacher said. The Home Office would not comment on the deportation, but said the family would receive asylum in Germany.

'Understandably devastated'

The boy and his family said they fled northern Iraq after IS threatened to kill disabled children. They first landed in Greece, but moved on to Germany and eventually to a refugee camp in Dunkirk, France. They then hid in the back of a lorry to get to the UK.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Where there is evidence that an asylum seeker is the responsibility of another European country we will seek to return them there. "It is only fair that we do not shoulder the burden of asylum claims that should rightly be considered by other countries.

"Asylum seekers should claim in the first safe country they arrive in," a Home Office spokesman said.